Flamingo Land has come under fire from an international welfare charity over plans to feed its big cats in the face of the foot and mouth crisis.

The Born Free Foundation contacted the theme park near Pickering about plans to slaughter some animals to feed the resident carnivores. These include two tigers and a polar bear.

The foundation, which takes its name from the 1960s film Born Free starring the actress Virginia McKenna, campaigns on behalf of animals it says are being held "unjustly captive" at home and abroad.

Members say captivity is unjustified when animals are treated as human entertainment, such as in zoos and circuses.

The foundation's zoo check co-ordinator Daniel Turner said that if the park looked hard enough, it could find supplies. Mr Turner said: "Meat can be imported from Germany cheaply and relatively easily. This policy, if it is a policy, is totally unnecessary."

A story in Tuesday's Evening Press outlined Flamingo Land's plans for the slaughter.

Some of the park's peccaries - small wild boars - would have been killed to supply food.

Park bosses stressed it was only a possibility and described it as a last resort.

Meat was not available elsewhere, they said, and the park's two tigers alone needed 15 kilos of meat each day to survive.

But Mr Turner pointed to Southlakes zoo in Cumbria - the UK's worst foot and mouth hit area - which he said was managing to feed its animals.

He added: "The owner of that zoo has seen profits drop by 90 per cent, but he has used other ways of getting by, such as asking people for help via the Internet. There are other ways."

However, Flamingo Land Director Gordon Gibb said the zoo's provisional plans did not remotely involve the feeding of peccaries to carnivores.

But he said the last resort policy was still in place - and would be implemented if the situation demanded it.

He added: "This sort of policy is nothing new. An internal policy is one every zoo has the right to consider and carry out if circumstances demand it."

Updated: 13:32 Friday, April 06, 2001